My review of _Except the Queen_

along with some commentary on how fantasy can't seem to escape the cliche of using youth and physical beauty to signify virtue and ugliness to mark evil, even when the writers seem to be trying to overturn this very cliche
http://greenmanreview.com/book/book_yolen_snyder_exceptthequeen.html
I don't wish for this next comment to sound overly snarky, but if I never read another story where beautiful women are described as having pale unmarked skin and golden hair, I will be happy. I live in a neighborhood where women often have Caribbean, Vietnamese, andor Hispanic accents, and it makes me wonder what the magical folk who live in my neighborhood look like, and why I'm not finding any fantasy stories about them. Are the Celtic fey just media whores, while the magic folk of other cultures are by nature more dignified and retiring?